Buying Plane Tickets for Dummies

[TxBrew]

I fly like once or twice a year, hop on Kayak and call it a day.

I need to fly next month to Minnesota with my wife/kids plus my folks so 7 people total. Just priced tickets and I say, I say, I can buy a couple heifers for that bill.

Is there a better website, any truth to buying at certain times of a day/certain days, etc.

 

[passedpawn]

Best bet is about 6 weeks before you fly. And, fly on tues - thurs. But with that advice, I've found it's still expensive to fly. Yer screwd. I fly with 5 every year or so out to san francisco and it's a bill or two.

 

[judsonp]

Google Flight search is pretty good. I think the minimum prices right now are from buying tickets 6-7 weeks in advance. But with 7 people... it's hard to get a domestic flight under $350/person IMO. That adds up.

 

[masonsjax]

Don't forget to try the Southwest website, they don't sell tickets anywhere else but are often the best deal domestic.

 

[d3track]

Book early is really the only chance. I travel weekly for work, and when it gets inside the 2-week mark it seems like nothing is under $700 per...

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Flying from where? With that many people, it might be worth driving to Houston or Dallas instead...

 

[Franky]

I'd be happy to help, but I'd need more info.

I travel quite a bit. Since I'm self employed and I have always found travel agents more expensive I've done all my own bookings over the past 9 years. I end up useing a combination of sites to figure out my final booking.

If you want you can PM me and like I said I'd be more then happy to try and help you out. Can't promise I'd find a better price though...

You don't need to give me any more info then where you prefer to leave from and arrive. Also exact or flexable dates. From there if I do find something I'll just PM you links.

 

[JohnSand]

As above, I usually try to fly mid-week. Book about 6 weeks ahead, fly on non vacation weeks (not this week for instance). I use Expedia. Many of the search sites allow you to check a box for flexibility in dates, even nearby airports. For the kind of money this will cost, you might think of renting a van and driving in shifts.

 

[passedpawn]

As above, I usually try to fly mid-week. Book about 6 weeks ahead, fly on non vacation weeks (not this week for instance). I use Expedia. Many of the search sites allow you to check a box for flexibility in dates, even nearby airports. For the kind of money this will cost, you might think of renting a van and driving in shifts.

Pfft.

 

[Tin4]

I fly like once or twice a year, hop on Kayak and call it a day.

I need to fly next month to Minnesota with my wife/kids plus my folks so 7 people total. Just priced tickets and I say, I say, I can buy a couple heifers for that bill.

Is there a better website, any truth to buying at certain times of a day/certain days, etc.

Why don't you just buy your own jet? You must be getting Business Jet Monthly for a reason right?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Why don't you just buy your own jet? You must be getting Business Jet Monthly for a reason right?

2 more cases of growlers to sell and he'll be getting fly like a G6.

 

[MaxStout]

Check some of the budget airlines, like Spirit and Sun Country. Both fly regularly into MSP, and Sun Country is based here. I'm not sure about Spirit, but Sun Country does not show up on the aggregator sites.

 

[Oginme]

Lessons I have learned, often the hard way....

If you shop around for prices via the travel sites (expedia, travelocity, etc.) you are going to find that the prices will all be about the same. They track where you have been and how often you check back for ticket prices. The more often you check, the less likely you will get a good deal.

The best deals that I have received have been directly from the airlines themselves. Check the other sites for the flight and airline options, select a few and then CALL the airlines individually. They will do much better over the phone than over the internet, especially with group rates. When you call, and get a quote, ask for a quote number so that if you call back you can reference it to get the same price. Note that they will often tell you that the quotes are only good for about 24 hrs so you need to go about this in one sitting.

Lastly, as passedpawn has indicated above, shop about 6 weeks ahead of your trip. The more of a particular flight they can fill up early, the less discounting they do the later weeks.

Saturday is usually discounted quite a bit. Most business people fly out on Sunday/Monday and return on Thursday/Friday, so it is harder to get cheaper flights then. The airlines will hold out for the higher fares on those days.

All in all, it's a pretty sucky way to do business, but what can you do when you need to fly...

 

[Baja_Brewer]

+1 one on checking Southwest. I prefer flying with them as I feel more like a customer and less like a hostage. Seriously, the moment you book with other major carriers they basically send you an email saying "HA! Gotcha, left teste and first born child if your itinerary changes! K, thanks, suck it!"

 

[Calichusetts]

Speaking of tracking, clear your cookies/history if you shop online.

Finally, always check with a local travel agent. You will be surprised sometimes. My parents thought they were savy by booking online and with the hotel directly when they went to the Bahamas last month. Turns out, most people at the resort went through agents and got cheaper flights and hotel rates.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Sometimes if you book the tickets individually, or at least in smaller groups, you'll get cheaper tickets so that could be a good route to go. You may not get to sit next to your family/friends, but it's only for a couple hours anyways.

I tend to priceshop on sites like Priceline but usually book through the airline directly because they will be a few bucks cheaper.

Also, Spirit (and Frontier) is my go-to for cheap flights. People will knock it all they want, but I can't complain: in the last few months I flew Chicago to Houston for $130 round trip, and Chicago to Tampa for $98 round trip. Sure there are fees for certain things (no, I don't NEED to select my seats while checking in at the airport, so I don't have to pay the $10 fee for that. And I understand a bottled water will cost $2 on the plane, but I bring a bottle from home anyways). It's still much cheaper than any other airline making the same flight.

 

[Tin4]

2 more cases of growlers to sell and he'll be getting fly like a G6.

Well at this rate he should have his jet....never.

Buy my growlers! He keeps calling me a failure. He's all "Austin, you're a failure. How many growlers do you have left? Wow. Now you're a failure at that too.".

He's kind of harsh with me.

 

[JoshuaW]

I use Google Flight search now. I find the prices start going up about six weeks before the flight, and start making big jumps every week from 4 weeks until the flight itself. If you want the best price, dont be picky about the number of connections, and try various days and airports. I have a regular flight that if I can switch one of the travel days to be a Saturday, the price drops from being $1100 to $600.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

He's kind of harsh with me.

Well, considering he refers to his wife, kids, and folks as "dummies" what do you expect?

 

[fuzzy2133]

Speaking of tracking, clear your cookies/history if you shop online.

Finally, always check with a local travel agent. You will be surprised sometimes. My parents thought they were savy by booking online and with the hotel directly when they went to the Bahamas last month. Turns out, most people at the resort went through agents and got cheaper flights and hotel rates.

Definitely clear history and cookies, that technology door does swing both directions.

The agent thing is no joke when you start leaving the states and it is not a time share hotel.

 

[Tin4]

Well, considering he refers to his wife, kids, and folks as "dummies" what do you expect?

That's not his special name for me? Why does he always call me it then?

 

[iijakii]

As someone that just bought two plane tickets to germany: the trick is just to lube up the ol ****ter and be prepared.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

That's not his special name for me? Why does he always call me it then?

It appears to be synonymous for family.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

As someone that just bought two plane tickets to germany: the trick is just to lube up the ol ****ter and be prepared.

Trick is (most of the time), don't fly to Germany. Fly to Amsterdam, London, Galway, Dublin, Cork, etc. and do Budget airline hop to Germany or and overnight. Often the roundtrip budget airline flight ends up about $60 and you have saved as much as $400 on the transatlantic ticket flying into anyplace but Germany...YMMV.

 

[iijakii]

Layovers are for poor people and Canadians.


(also Condor does cheapish non-stop flights from PDX to FRA)

 

[PGEduardo]

If you can carry on, try skiplagged.com

It takes advantage of airlines charging more for terminal destinations at smaller airports. EG - for some reason it's cheaper to fly from ABQ - SEA and hop off in Portland than to just book ABQ-Portland. You'll have a boarding pass for a leg you don't use, and you can't check bags but it could save cash. Looks like ~$50 cheaper than $350 from Southwest for me...